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For our latest research project, which we ran in partnership with ServiceMax from GE Digital our focus was to see what the field service engineer of the near future will look like. We are now into feature three of our online coverage of the findings of this research where we look at some of the conclusions drawn from the first part of our analysis and highlight some of the key statistics the research revealed.

To recap in the first part of this series we looked at the research aims, the threat of the ageing workforce and the changes in training methodologies that are emerging. In part two we explored if and if and how field service companies are utilising their experienced field service engineers to train the incoming generation.

Now let's dive in to part three...

 

There is also a detailed white paper outlining the wider findings of this report which is available to fieldservicenews.com subscribers...

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(Please note that by applying for your subscription via this link you accept the terms and conditions here and a plain english version is available from our main subscriptions page here) 

Companies are aware of the challenges but are they reacting quick enough?

It is clear from our findings that the role of the FSE is undoubtedly changing.

Field service companies are today seeking much more rounded individuals, who are as proficient as dealing with face to face interactions with the customer as they are dealing with technical maintenance issues.

It is also clear that whilst it may have been exaggerated in some quarters the challenges of replacing an ageing workforce is very much a real threat to a large number of field service organisations. However, the fact remains that these challenges may also essentially be set resolve each other.

There have been numerous explorations and studies into the traits of the Millennial generation and one of the key observations that is often raised is that Millennials are on the whole a more confident generation than those that preceded them, who also value variety within their working lives - perfectly suited to a role that balances both technical and customer service elements perhaps?

Connected Assets, Machine Learning, AR and of course a solid FSM system can all empower field service engineers to be the brand ambassadors field service companies today are seeking.What is clear though is that the link between the two will be provided by technology. As discussed above, technologies such as Augmented Reality can go a huge way to bridging the gap between the experienced engineers that are in the latter part of their careers and those who are just entering the workforce. It is, therefore, a bit of a surprise that so few companies are actively embracing such tools as yet.

Perhaps, here is the real issue and the underlying challenge.

Technology really does provide an answer to most of all of the challenges discussed in this series so far. Connected Assets, Machine Learning, AR and of course a solid FSM system can all empower field service engineers to be the brand ambassadors field service companies today are seeking.

They also provide a platform for easing the transition from ‘a ‘Boomer workforce to a Millennial one by creating far more economically efficient means of extending the older FSEs productive career span, bringing them out of the field and allowing them to offer guidance remotely.

However, it seems that for many perhaps there is a lack of urgency.

There is a sense that for many companies it is a case of ‘yes - we see the challenge and we’re aware of it but aren’t actioning it just yet...’ One suspects that perhaps because the issue of an ageing workforce isn’t quite critical enough as yet and the fact that solutions do exist and are in-fact becoming fairly well established already, the danger doesn’t seem as particularly real as it should for many.

However, whilst the systems and technologies are certainly available to overcome these challenges, implementation and realignment of processes will take time and unless companies act soon, the ageing workforce crisis and rapid evolution of the FSE in a millennial guise may just catch them unawares and then the risk may just still live up to the hyperbole after all.

Some of the key statistics from the findings:

• 48% of field service companies believe the threat an ageing workforce poses to their field service operations is either significant or severe
• 18% of field service companies believe their exposure to an ageing workforce will be limited
• Only 10% of field service companies have redeveloped their training methodologies to be more attuned to Millennials entering the workplace
• 78% of field service companies are in the process of or are planning to overhaul their training processes
• 20% of companies actively use their senior engineers in a remote expert capacity to guide younger Field Service Engineers in the field
• 98% of companies are prioritising softer, inter-personal skills as key attributes more now than they have done in the past when hiring new field service engineers[/unordered_list]

Want to know more? There is also a detailed white paper outlining the wider findings of this report which is available to fieldservicenews.com subscribers...

Not a subscriber yet? Click here to apply for a complimentary industry practitioner email and get this resource sent to you instantly

(Please note that by applying for your subscription via this link you accept the terms and conditions here and a plain English version is available from our main subscriptions page here) 

 

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What will the impact of servitization and the move to preventative maintenance that it entails have on parts and inventory management? Erik Kjellstrom, Pre-Sales Manager, Syncron tackled this question at the Aftermarket Conference in Hamburg last October. Kris Oldland followed up with him after the event to find out more more...

As Erik Kjellstrom, Pre-Sales Manager, Syncron, stepped down from the stage having just given a presentation at this year’s Aftermarket Conference, I was looking forward to the opportunity to catch up with him for a number of reasons.

His organisation has been something of an anomaly in our sector of recent years. A pioneering lone voice that often were seemingly single-handedly trying to bring a dedicated solution to what was often the unloved piece of the field service puzzle – parts management.

Whether, it be pricing, inventory management or stock ordering, Syncron have successfully over the last few years been one of few brands to be associated with taking this part of the aftermarket conversation seriously. We’ve seen Syncron a lot at various conferences over the last 24 months and almost each time they’ve been armed with case studies and hard data that revealed just how much (and how easily) their solution has improved their clients P&L both in terms of top line revenue and bottom line profit.

However, this time around there was a twist to their approach. Having recently brought a new in module into their offering that is focused on predictive maintenance and based on IoT, were they shifting their focus - or was this development just a natural evolution that reflected the changing dynamics of the industry?

The central thrust of Kjellstrom’s presentation was that essentially there are a number of interesting trends appearing in the aftermarket industry – covering a lot of the ground that regular readers of Field Service News will be familiar with.

We are seeing futuristic concepts such as Drones, 3D Printing, Augmented Reality and Autonomous Vehicles all of which have all been on the horizon offering the promise of industry revolution for a while but are now really starting to come into the mainstream conversationTo begin with, coming from the technology perspective we are seeing futuristic concepts such as Drones, 3D Printing, Augmented Reality and Autonomous Vehicles all of which have all been on the horizon offering the promise of industry revolution for a while but are now really starting to come into the mainstream conversation. Alongside this with have already seen wide adoption of Mobile, Cloud and increasingly the Internet of Things amongst manufacturers and service providers.

However, the changes we are seeing in our sector are not just driven by technology alone.

Sweeping demographic change within the workforce, accelerated by the ageing workforce crisis being faced by companies across the globe and being exacerbated by the unprecedented differences between the incoming Millennial generation and the outgoing Baby Boomers, is of course another factor driving industry evolution forwards.

Finally, add into this mix our shift to a much more service and outcome orientated society as a whole - arguably itself the result of the generational shift alongside the technical advances referenced above and we are seeing companies turn their entire business models on their head.

Servitization has gone from fringe concept to buzzword across the last eighteen months or so as talk of ever decreasing SLAs and increasing First-Time-Fix rates has morphed into discussions around guarantees of uptime and the financial impact of unplanned downtime.

As such our industry is in a fascinating and exciting state of flux at the moment and it was this rapid development and the various drivers behind it that were at the heart of the Kjellstrom presentation in Hamburg.

Of course, such dynamic changes within the sector need to be reflected within the solutions provided and it is the shift towards preventative maintenance (itself a major stepping stone on the way to servitization) that Syncron have focused their latest efforts on.

“We have been working very much to support more reactive service models in the past in terms of inventory management and pricing but what we are now doing, both from a product stand point but also from a service offering standpoint, is we are working towards an uptime supporting module.” Kjellstrom explained when we caught up.

In brief, Syncron are integrating a new module into their current service network optimisation capabilities.

These capabilities in the past had all been centred on the parts management area of the Aftermarket sector – pricing, inventory management, and ordering. However, their new module is a predictive maintenance module they call Uptime (makes sense), which Kjellstrom explains is intended to ‘blend together the aspect of inventory management and pricing etc with an understanding of the actual assets that use these parts.

It seems a natural alignment to bring the asset and the parts management together in the preventative management worldIt seems a natural alignment to bring the asset and the parts management together in the preventative management world. Indeed, much of reasoning behind this development from Syncron echoes a similar line of conversation that ServiceMax put forward when they announced their integration with GE Digital’s technology Asset Performance Management (APM).

Essentially both Syncron and ServiceMax are approaching the same central maxim - just from two different angles. In a world of IoT and sensor-led preventative maintenance the asset is King and everything else should fall in line around and work back from that one premise.

However, where one does feel that viewpoints will change between the two organisations is in how the ecosystem is built. Through their recent acquisition list including Servicemax, it is clear that GE Digital have their eyes set on building a comprehensive and all encompassing new platform for age of the Industrial Internet.

For Syncron however, the focus for the time being at least, appears to be in line with their best-of-breed heritage.

“I think that a product such as ours and a Field Service Management (FSM) system are complimentary products.” Kjellstrom explains.

“We have many instances where we will see a FSM system or a maintenance system that runs in compliment to the more Aftermarket focussed, parts oriented solutions such as ours. Perhaps what makes Syncron a little bit unique is the way we work and how we blend together the aspects of network optimisation and parts optimisation which is often natively something that belongs in a FSM tool.”

With so many technologies evolving at once a clear case could be made for establishing a comprehensive technology ecosystem across a service orientated business and Syncron is set to be an important part of that ecosystem.

Yet, in a world that seems to be in constant Beta, not all developments are equal and Kjellstrom believes it is important to understand how different technologies can impact the way we work when building out your own tech strategy.

Certain technologies will bring refinement whilst others offer revolution.

“We definitely see more potential impact from some types of the technologies than others,” he comments.

“What we are really interested in are the questions like will 3D printing totally replace a need for service part inventory management – and the answer is no it will not, it may enhance it but it will not replace it.”

Does the development of autonomous vehicles mean that we will begin to see car sharing across a team of engineers“How about autonomous vehicles? Does the development of autonomous vehicles mean that we will begin to see car sharing across a team of engineers” he asks rhetorically before outlining that such technology could lead to servitizing the fleet at which point automotive manufacturers concerns about spare parts really begin to truly change and evolve into an entirely new set of thinking and processes.

“These are the types of questions that we are interested in, in terms of the emerging technology.” He explains.

“What we are seeing is that some of these new technologies are really pushing towards a more uptime related world, whereas some technologies are more likely to become tools for us to simply improve existing processes.”

However, whilst he believes the shift to Servitization and outcome based solutions will continue to grow, Kjellstrom also insists that the traditional break-fix market and the aspects of pricing, parts management and inventory which that function drives forward, will never fully disappear.

“I am sure that the shift in focuses to uptime guarantees are growing rapidly and eventually break-fix is going to become less significant but there is always going to be the type of customers where uptime critical assets are not relevant.”

Indeed, whilst we wait for the weighting between the old and the new to do a 180 flip, one thing is clear, for the short-term at least we need to be able to accommodate both – which means looking to the future today – something Kjellstrom and his colleagues have embraced which is clearly evident by their introduction of the new Uptime module.

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Paul Whitelam, VP of Product Marketing, ClickSoftware explains why service chain optimisation needn’t be as daunting as we might expect...

Every customer-centric business is ultimately measured by how it performs on the day of service delivery. But the day of service is just the last link in the chain of decisions made weeks or months in advance. And sometimes your best-laid plans don’t play out as expected. Disruptions in the schedule are bound to happen – customers cancel, traffic conditions vary, and technicians call out sick.

So how can you possibly ensure your techs are at the right places at the right time, while increasing productivity, delivering positive customer experiences, and keeping costs down—even when managing the unexpected?

For one, you must consider the entire service chain, or everything that occurs before, on, and after the day of service. Let’s dive deeper into what this means.

Service Chain Optimisation(SCO)

The modern-day customer has more power than ever before. With companies like Amazon and Uber setting the bar for customer experience, customers today demand and expect reliable, flexible, and almost flawless service. And that’s not impossible to deliver.

In 1996, ClickSoftware coined the term “Service Chain Optimisation”(SCO) to define a decision making process for ensuring an efficient day of service. It considers the full life-cycle of service demand, from the early stages of forecasting and planning, through scheduling and dispatching, to execution and analysis. And it’s meant to help you find the optimal balance between business goals and customer expectations.

It’s important to understand that all the steps in SCO are interrelated, and that missing steps means service delivery could sufferIt’s important to understand that all the steps in SCO are interrelated, and that missing steps means service delivery could suffer. Let’s say a dispatcher jumps right into scheduling without any forecasting or planning. They might schedule too many technicians, which is expensive and creates excessive idle time. Or they could schedule too few techs, which would mean slower response times and frustrated customers. Likewise, without proper planning, a tech might find that he or she is without the right parts to complete a job – again, leaving the customer upset.

It’s not hard to understand why it’s important to consider all links in the service chain. Let’s break it down into the three major stages:

The Day Before: Planning

Ultimately the goal of SCO is to ensure your technicians are at the right place at the right time, fully prepared to meet customer demand. But as the service day is full of unpredictability and variation, success is derived from what happens in the planning stage.

This stage involves predicting to the best of your ability the expected demand on a particular day or week. And it’s where you determine the optimal amount of resources you’ll need to complete every service call, without over or underestimating. Historical data (or anything gathered from the analysis stage) can help you make the right decisions.

The Day of: Execution

The day of service is where everything happens – from scheduling and dispatch, to fixing the customer’s problem and following up with a survey. Though a schedule may have been created days or weeks in advance, not all appointments will be honoured. There will likely be customer cancellations, traffic delays, or emergency jobs, which will require real-time management.

As noted, the success of this day depends on the planning ahead. You may not know exactly what’s going to happen on the day of service, but you better be prepared for anything that comes at you. This stage relies heavily on maximsing your time and responding effectively to changes. So it helps to have a flexible schedule to reshuffle as new jobs appear.

The Day After: Analysis

We all know that service doesn’t end after the execution. In the final stage of the service chain, field service providers must look back on how the day went and whether goals were met. And if they weren’t, what is it that kept them from achieving their goals? How did customers feel about the job done?

We all know that service doesn’t end after the execution. Because you can’t improve what you don’t measure, track your performance and use customer feedback to continually improve quality. Although it’s called the service chain, it might be more accurate to think of it as a continuous cycle, where you feed the results of your analysis back to the forecasting and planning for subsequent visits.

Use artificial intelligence to your advantage

You might be wondering how a mere human can possibly optimise every step in the chain, make accurate predictions, and quickly reshuffle the schedule when something comes up. Fortunately, with the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, you can automatically optimise schedules and make accurate predictions in seconds.

Here’s an example: with a mobile workforce it’s important to reduce idle time and keep technicians moving so they can complete more jobs and make as many customers happy as possible. AI-driven technology can take into account both historical and real-time traffic data to quickly choose the best travel routes to customer sites. By avoiding traffic, techs can complete the job faster and move on to the next.

Or consider when there are schedule disruptions. Instead of leaving white space when a customer cancels, the AI-driven technology can account for technician locations and automatically dispatch them to another nearby job. Likewise, to make room for emergency jobs, the system can take SLA requirements into consideration and reshuffle low priority tasks to make room.

Service Chain Optimisation might seem complicated, but with the right technology, proper planning, and analysis, it’s possible to deliver near flawless service to your customers.

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Noventum have been a trusted pillar of the service management community for a long, long time and now they have established an excellent process to allow field service companies establish which FSM vendors best meet their needs. René Boverhuis guides us through their methodology...

A Field Service Management (FSM) solution is a key enabler for a service business to deliver best-in-class customer experiences, maximise business efficiency and achieve strategic goals.

Selecting the most suitable FSM solution can be a daunting task as there are numerous products on the market, each with its own strengths and weaknesses, and no single product can support complete end-to-end service processes.

A complete service solution will almost always consist of a combination of several products, some of which may already be implemented, except in a greenfield situation. Organisations thus have to accommodate their existing IT strategy and architecture in which the FSM solution should be integrated.

To select a FSM solution, Noventum recommends a seven-step approach:

1. Define strategic business objectives and goals

Before starting to select a new FSM solution, it is important to understand why an organisation needs this and what the organisation wants to accomplish with it.

Questions that need to be answered include:

• What direction is your service organisation heading?
• What type of services will be provided to your customers three to five years from now? Outcome based, predictive maintenance, etc.
• What are the main business goals in terms of growth and profit margins?
• Why not strive for a standardised global operating model and supporting service IT architecture?

It is important to understand the strategic objectives and goals as the new solution should be able to provide the functionality to enable the business to achieve the goals and be able to support the services that will be launched in the future.

2. Identify key service characteristics and service process scope

The type of service contracts that are offered, the type of market the organisation is addressing and the way these services are delivered greatly influence the required capabilities that a FSM solution must provide.

To get an understanding of the nature of the service business that needs to be supported, insight into key service characteristics is needed, including:

The different service contract types that are offered.

Service market as a B2C service organisation has quite a different dynamic than a B2B.

How is service delivered? By using internal resources, subcontractors, outsourcing of service activities, or a combination? Does this differ per county, region or business unit?

Size of the service business (if possible broken down per country, region or business unit) in terms of:

• Service revenue per year
• Total number of service contracts, service requests and work orders per month
• Number of technicians, dispatchers, service managers
• Value of service parts consumed per month
• Total number of installed base objects

The functional scope required of a FSM solution is dependent on the service processes that the organisation needs to have in place. To be future proof, the processes required in the future also must be identified to be able to support new type of services that are planned.

At Noventum we use the Service Capability & Performance (SCP) Standards as a framework to identify the business capabilities that should be included in the scope. A good way of determining which service business capabilities are relevant for an organisation is by identifying key end-to-end business scenarios and for each business scenario determine which SCP capability is touched by it.

Using this approach, a high-level business capability model can be created relatively quickly. This can also be used as a starting point for the definition of a new global standard.

3. Design High-level Service IT Architecture

Most organisations already have IT applications in place that support part of the service business, often this differs per geography or business unit.

To determine which elements of the existing IT landscape can continue to be used or which applications are no longer needed, it is important to fully understand the landscape. It is important to understand:

• Which applications are currently in use?
• Which processes are they supporting?
• What the technical state of these applications?
• How satisfied the business users are with the current applications?
• What are the gaps in terms of functionality?

This analysis can then be used to design a high-level vision of the future service IT architecture which can be used to: decide which applications should continue to be used, identify the gaps for which a new solution must be found, and determine any dependencies that should be considered.

This also includes a mapping of the service process onto the new architecture. For example, it could be the case that the existing ERP implementation is used for production and installation at customer sites. The initial installed base then is created in the ERP, then transferred to FSM solution and maintained in the FSM solution from that point on. Using the new High-Level Service IT Architecture, the process scope for the new FSM solution is further refined.

4. Define functional and non-functional requirements and constraints

Now that the business processes have been defined, the next step is to define the functional features that the new FSM solution must have.

To define the required features, Noventum’s SCP Functional Reference Architecture is used. The reference architecture consists of a set of functional domains, each with a set of typical features. The processes from the SCP Standards are mapped to the functional domains and therefore we know which ones are relevant for the process scope (fig.1).

This results in a comprehensive list of features that the new solution must support. This list is prioritised according the business goals and strategy.

Besides the functional requirements, the non-functional requirements and constraints are also defined. This includes the typical things like performance, security, availability, flexibility and interoperability, and constraints that define the context and environment in which the new FSM solution must be deployed.

5. Identify short-list of FSM products that match requirements and constraints

The functional scope, High Level service IT Architecture, functional and non-functional requirements and constraints can now be used to the define a short-list of products.

Noventum has good understanding of the FSM products on the market today, which includes that feature they provide and how they fit in existing architecture. We regularly publish our FSM Reality Check (fig.2) which ranks each FSM solution in terms of the ability to provide business benefits vs. the risks and costs involved in implementing and operating these solutions.

Using our knowledge of the FSM products, Noventum can help organisations to quickly reduce a long-list of potential products and vendors to the two or three most suitable ones, eliminating the need to go through a lengthy RFI process.

6. Evaluate FSM products and vendors

For each of the vendors and their product on the short-list it needs to be evaluated into detail to what extend the product can address the functional and non-functional requirements, whether it fits into the existing/future IT architecture and if it can meet the constraints.

To significantly shorten the time required to select a solution, Noventum often assists organisations in defining the RFP (using the functional scope, non-functional requirements and constraints) and evaluating the RFP responses, demonstrations and presentations.

As part of the process Noventum believes it is important that reference visits are part of the selection process as this provides the opportunity to hear from peers about their experience with the solution.

Reference visits also provide insight into why an organisation selected their specific solution and to give confidence that the solution works in practice.

7. Conduct Proof of Concept

High user adoption of you FSM solution is a critical success factor and there might be some essential specific functionality for a service organisation that needs detailed evaluation.

A Proof of Concept is a good way to validate whether the technicians are comfortable using the mobile FSM app to do their job, for example. Other examples include testing contract types, SLA’s or complex preventive maintenance schedules.

Together with Noventum and the product vendor, some of the key business scenarios defined in Step 2 can be implemented in a short period of time and validated with a select group of stakeholders.

The Proof of Concept is thus used to confirm that the selected product indeed is the best suitable FSM product to support the service processes and enables the service organisation to meet their strategic goals.

Conclusion

Although selecting the right FSM solution for an organisation is a daunting task, by using the right frameworks, knowledge of the service business and FSM market, it can be done in a much shorter time frame and cost. While an organisation can be sure that they select a solution, which is able to support their service business now and in the future.

 

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Ahead of his presentation at the forthcoming Field Service Medical conference being held in La Jolla, California next month, Matthew Boretti from Teleflex Americas shares his thoughts on technology innovation, healthcare consolidation, and how these are changing customer expectations in the medical device industry...

Which major field service and customer centricity trends have you observed in the medical device industry this year?

Our customers are continually being asked to do more with less. This is particularly difficult as they are already operating on razor thin margins, so they really need help beyond product solutions to help them find new ways to reduce costs while improving care to their patients in the same process. No easy feat. In short, they expect more from their suppliers. And, they are hiring bright people to drive these results, so suppliers must come to the table well prepared to have these discussions. They want to understand the value-added performance programs and education we can offer their staff.

Have your customers’ expectations drastically evolved in view of the latest technological innovations? How are you keeping up with all the changes?

They really have. And, I believe the reason their expectations have increased is they are consumers like everyone else, so they are getting used to one-click shopping through services like Amazon which also offers hassle free returns and same day delivery! It’s crazy how simple things are becoming and how the world of instant gratification and self service has become so prevalent. For this reason, Teleflex is investing heavily into customer experience design, which certainly involves evolving our systems and technology capabilities. Measuring results is critical. Fortunately, the technology makes it easier to track information.

Has healthcare consolidation impacted your operations in any way?

It has, both on the customer side and in respect to competition. As hospitals and hospital systems consolidate, we often see their desire to standardise purchasing decisions, which provides both opportunities and risks. We also see consolidation on the supplier side, which can change how we view our competition. We may have suppliers that were partners yesterday, who we now see as competitors.

What should field service leaders do to meet rising expectations of connected and empowered customers?

They need to find ways to respond more quickly to their customer needs and offer opportunities for low-impact self-service.

Which direction do you see your company heading in the next five years?

We need to design systems and processes that will deliver a radically simple interface with customers. We need to transform our culture into one where all employees view every interaction as an opportunity to exceed customers expectations. Ultimately, we need to create an environment where we are obsessed with making every interaction with our customers a positive experience.

We look forward to your presentation at the upcoming Field Service Medical 2018 forum. What do you think about this year’s program – which topics and sessions will be most helpful in helping you achieve the goal of being 100% customer centric in your field service operations?

I’m really excited about the program and the sessions being offered. It very much aligns to the trends and areas we see as important in our business. It will be tough choosing the sessions to attend given the many options.

Customer centricity is set to be a hot topic at Field Service Medical 2018, taking place in La Jolla, California, this coming February. Download the Field Service Medical 2018 Agenda to learn more.

Interested in attending? Field Service News subscribers can get an exclusive 20% discount to this event. If you are a field service practitioner then you can apply for a complimentary subscription by clicking here and we'll send you your discount code across on email straight away

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Our latest research project, run in partnership with ServiceMax from GE Digital has take a deep dive into how the role of the field service engineer is evolving. Across the next few months we will be publishing a series of articles both in print and online exploring the findings of this research.

In the first part of this series we looked at the research aims, the threat of the ageing workforce and the changes in training methodologies that are emerging.

Now in part two we explore if and if and how field service companies are utilising their experienced field service engineers to train the incoming generation.

There is also a detailed white paper outlining the wider findings of this report which is available to fieldservicenews.com subscribers...

Not a subscriber yet? Click here to apply for a complimentary industry practitioner email and get this resource sent to you instantly

(Please note that by applying for your subscription via this link you accept the terms and conditions here and a plain english version is available from our main subscriptions page here) 

Utilising experienced FSEs to train the next generation:

Of course, an optimal solution that keeps older FSEs in the work place longer and ensures their knowledge is transferred to those FSEs entering the workforce, is to implement training programs whereby the more experienced techs are directly involved in the training process.

Traditionally, the potential for such undertakings was limited somewhat by the very nature of a field service role. Some senior technicians could take on trainer roles perhaps, providing classroom style learning, but such positions are by default limited. Also, much of a young FSEs true training begins once they’ve left the classroom and are actively in the field. Again, some companies run highly successful programs, pairing up newer engineers with more experienced counterparts to deliver on-job training - doing so can be costly and an inefficient use of FSE resources - doubling up engineers on each job.

Over half (54%) of respondents stated that such an undertaking was certainly something that they are exploring but that they currently don’t have the technology/processes in place.However, emerging technologies - in particular Augmented Reality have shown huge potential to widen the possibilities of using older FSEs in a training and support role. This has dual benefit of both extending the FSEs potential career within the field service organisation whilst putting valuable insight, knowledge and experience in to the hands of less experienced engineers as and when they need it.

But are field service companies harnessing both the power of technology and the experience of their older engineers in such a manner?

We asked our respondents: “A number of companies are now using remote assistance technologies (e.g. Augmented Reality) to keep their older and experienced FSEs in the work place for longer, both as a means of training new recruits and also as a way of ensuring that the knowledge and experience of older engineers is not just walking out of the door. Does this apply to your organisation?’

The responses again somewhat reflect the findings of the previous question around training methodologies, in that whilst the majority of companies agree with the notion of using their older, more experienced FSEs as part of training and support programs and that technology was key to that process, most were still (at best) just beginning down that path.

In fact, over half (54%) of respondents stated that such an undertaking was certainly something that they are exploring but that they currently don’t have the technology/processes in place.

However, perhaps surprisingly just under a quarter of companies (24%) stated that they did not envisage implementing any such plans. This is a surprisingly large number given those companies who do not involve their older engineers in the training process risk seeing years of amassed ‘tribal knowledge’ simply walking out of the door in the not too distant future.

Looking forward it may well be that it is these companies, i.e those who have gotten the head-start over their competitors in such programs, will reap the benefits of doing so and it may well be at the expense of those who don’t.

However, with currently just 20% of companies actively using senior engineers in a remote expert capacity - it seems there could still be room at the top table, for a while at least.

Soft skills taking precedence?

Another major driving factor which is often seen to be impacting how we view the core skills of the field service engineer is the widely reported increase in customer expectations and demands - largely driven by disruptive companies such as Uber and Amazon raising the bar in terms of visibility and immediacy.

Today’s customers are empowered by technology, and easier access to information than ever before makes them more insightful and more expectant. They also have a louder voice than ever before thanks to social media, whilst the ongoing digitisation of all industries makes finding competing service providers a quick and easy process for dissatisfied customers.

And of course the majority (if not all) of this can now be done without the need to actually meet another human being in person. But what does this mean for the FSE?

Well given that in many instances the FSE may be the only face-to-face touch point your customers have with your customers, the old image of a FSE being a recluse, lurking in dark corners, happier tucked away fixing machines than speaking to those pesky customers who just get in the way - has thankfully made way for a new breed of confident, customer-friendly FSEs.

An incredible 98% of respondents stated that people skills were now a higher priority for them than they had been beforeToday’s FSE is armed with all the knowledge they need to hand courtesy of a modern FSM system. They’re confident speaking with customers at all levels of seniority and are true brand ambassadors and are as comfortable selling as they are fixing.

But, is this actually a true reflection of how field service companies are beginning to view their FSEs? Have soft skills become more important than technical skills? There is an argument that it is simpler to train technical skills and that good inter-personal skills are that much harder to teach - but does this hold any truth and are field service companies moving towards placing greater emphasis on soft-skills in their recruitment today? We asked our respondents ‘Is the need for softer, interpersonal skills – becoming a higher priority than before when recruiting new FSEs?

From the results it would appear that this is indeed a major trend amongst field service organisations. An incredible 98% of respondents stated that people skills were now a higher priority for them than they had been before with 46% of companies going as far as stating that people skills are at the top of their list when recruiting new FSEs.

Want to know more? There is also a detailed white paper outlining the wider findings of this report which is available to fieldservicenews.com subscribers...

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One of the most important presentations at this year’s Field Service Europe Conference was delivered by Rajat Kakar, VP, Head of Product Related Services Business, Fujitsu as he tackled the question of what leadership will look like in the future. kris Oldland spoke to him about some of the key points...

The world in which we are living is changing and it is changing rapidly. Digitalisation and ever increasing connectivity is having an immeasurable impact upon the way businesses operate and the workplace of the future is going to be a vastly different environment to what it is today.

The question is how prepared are you and your business to adapt to these changes? It is almost a given that those organisations that can see the road ahead and are plotting a clear roadmap for their own evolution, are the ones that will thrive. Those who wait until the changes come, and try to react to them then... they may well find it is too little, too late.

As Leon Megginson, a Louisiana State University business professor stated in a speech some fifty years ago stated “It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.”

This is why Fujitsu’s Rajat Kakar’s presentation at this year’s Field Service Europe conference held in Amsterdam is one that had attendees fully engaged - as it focused on the changes coming to all corners of industry and importantly how businesses must adapt.

If you think about leadership it goes into multiple dimensionsAnd of course at the heart of all organisational change must sit strong leadership - but what exactly does strong leadership in this brave new world of Digitisation, Automation and Artificial Intelligence look like?

“If you think about leadership it goes into multiple dimensions,” explains Rajat.

“We need to be thinking about how can we engage with and harness the next generation of people who are going to be driving service businesses forward and to do this we must start to think about things from the perspective of where the market is going to be developing.”

“Ultimately, everything comes down to this understanding of where the market is going - that is the first step. From there, if we can see how the market will evolve, then we can ask ourselves what kind of people do we need in order to be able to drive our businesses forward?”

For Rajat, globalisation driven by more effective connectivity is one such significant consideration.

“This opens up a complete new area, one which a lot of people have not really dealt with before,” he comments.

The service delivery mechanism is no longer just around the corner, the delivery mechanisms of the future will be in the global delivery centres“The service delivery mechanism is no longer just around the corner, the delivery mechanisms of the future will be in the global delivery centres. The delivery mechanisms will be possibly even be sitting in multiple countries depending on how you’re able to find your experts for the service element you want to be delivered.”

“These are the things we need to start thinking about today. We need to consider how we as companies are going to be managing our businesses moving forward.”

Of course, even today we are seeing how technology is changing the shape of our businesses and this is undoubtedly only set to increase in pace. We have been hearing talk about the fourth industrial revolution and of new business paradigms for many years now and concepts such as Industrie4.0 and Servitization are rapidly taking hold. However, Rajat asserts that this is just one aspect of the evolution service organisations should be aware of.

The fast changing face of the workforce will also add far reaching cultural changes to the way we work.

“The next element we must consider is that the workforce is changing which means that we will have a lot more experts moving into the market - you will be bringing on experts rather than developing them via the traditional organisational structures,” he explains.

It is clear that across all verticals, business leaders can expect to see wholesale changes as the combined drivers of technology and cultural shift make their impact known. One upshot of such impact Rajat predicts is a much more competitive and level playing field - which will be largely driven by the maturation of Big Data tools.

The ability to assemble data and then draw information from that data will become increasingly easier.“What I think is fascinating is that the barriers to entry will continue to become smaller,” Rajat states. “The ability to assemble data and then draw information from that data will become increasingly easier. What used to take a long time to achieve will be done in a quicker and more efficient manner.”

“To take an example, let’s look at the traditional Telco market. What happened traditionally was that you would have an infrastructure which had an clearly identifiable cost.”

“However, off the back of such infrastructure we will see a lot of small companies that are coming up who will actually achieve on the base of that infrastructure - but they could achieve a lot more, in a lot quicker way whilst avoiding much of the potential costs which a traditionally structured company used to have.”

“If you take for example a company which has been the traditional provider of telecoms such as AT&T or Telefonica you will see that more and more these organisations are getting into areas like content management.”

“This is because they can see that the traditional means of delivering news or programmes etc which generally came via traditional broadcasters are quickly becoming less and less valid.” Rajat adds.

What is happening is that via such digital changes those who had traditionally been in the market suddenly gain a lot more competitors“So if these Telco’s are able to harness the information from their customers to be able to do more direct marketing and direct advertising, and do all these things effectively, what is happening is that via such digital changes those who had traditionally been in the market suddenly gain a lot more competitors - there are a lot more smaller companies that are now able to compete.”

“Once we get down to this, the question becomes what kind of a service mechanism are you going to need to support these type of companies moving forward - because they are not looking for the traditional services, everything can be turned completely upside down.”

These are all hugely important questions you absolutely must be working through today, in order to build a leadership team that will flourish tomorrow.

“You have to face up to the fact that the type of leadership you have in place today may not be the right type of team to take you forward. Because if this leadership is not in tune with the upcoming changes to the market,then they are not in tune with how to make your business elements strategic.”

“Their ideas will effectively become lost in translation. Remember, you’re going to be needing different types of people and your going to be needing different types of skill sets if you want to stay ahead of the pack”

To quote another American University lecturer, John Allen Paulos, a Mathematician from Temple University, Pennsylvania, “Uncertainty is the only certainty.” and no one can tell exactly where the future may lie.

However, one can make an educated guess based on fairly substantial evidence - and for those attending Field Service Europe, paying attention to Rajat’s shrewd assessment of the future is sure to give you a head-start.

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Having explored some of the ground breaking new tools being used in field service including crowd service and Augmented Reality in his recent articles, Manuel Grenacher, CEO Coresystems now explores how video assistance can be used to great effect in improving field service delivery...

The outlook for the growth of the field service market is hugely positive, with predictions noting the field service industry will nearly triple in size to $5.11 billion by 2020.

Following on from my previous articles in Field Service News, several modern technologies are playing a major role in driving that exponential growth, including the Internet of Things (IoT) and augmented reality (AR) solutions. Another trend – or rather an overarching one that IoT and AR innovations both tie into – is the rising importance of video.

In addition to AR, as well as artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR), new tools are emerging that make it possible to more directly involve service technicians, specialists and experts in field service operations, even if they are not on site.

Any provider of field services understands the frustration of having to comprehend a complex problem without a proper visual perspective of the issue at hand. Any provider of field services understands the frustration of having to comprehend a complex problem without a proper visual perspective of the issue at hand. With a verbal description (and perhaps an attempt to recreate strange sounds emanating from a malfunctioning device), a service technician is expected to diagnose the problem and magically offer tips on how to repair it.

When information cannot be transferred and made accessible to field service technicians on-the-go, this limits their ability to offer first-time fixes. With the rapidly increasing pace our lifestyles, consumption habits and mindsets, this is an issue because we are expected to be quicker, connected and digitalized.

The consequence is dissatisfied customers who face lost revenue due to extended system downtime.

Video assistance uses the tools available – like mobile devices – to provide images of devices in need of repair or even virtual spaces where service technicians can congregate to solve an issue. Companies can minimize errors, increase efficiency and speed up field services by, for example, uploading instructional videos and manuals and checklists for facilitating repairs.

Field service technicians can refer to these guides if they are unable to solve a problem on their own. This is a real help for service technicians who might be less familiar at repairing unique problems.

In addition to the growing complexity of service offerings, the aging workforce is one of the top challenges within the field service industry, according to the Aberdeen Group.

As this highly skilled workforce approaches retirement age, service managers are now faced with the risk of losing a vast source of knowledge that will be difficult, if not impossible, to replace.

Modern video tools would make it possible for seasoned service technicians to play an active role in the company while also determining their own schedules.That is because these service technicians have not only gone through years of training but have also acquired immeasurable experience on the job – and this is experience that can often only be amassed firsthand and on site with clients.

Modern video tools would make it possible for seasoned service technicians to play an active role in the company while also determining their own schedules. This would ensure that their valuable expertise and know-how is available to a new and novice pool of service technicians.

Moving towards video is relatively simple and cost-effective to apply, and promises increased customer satisfaction, higher revenues, lower costs and overall maximized efficiency. Given video’s integral role in our day-to day activities (YouTube, Skype, Snapchat, Facebook Live and other media), it is surprising that more companies offering field services have not yet integrated video technology into their business models. Surely a tool as ubiquitous as video – connecting people, providing access to endless information and entertainment – is a vital tool for providing more effective service.

Video-connected field service technicians have access to a vast wealth of information, which could help them find answers to complex questions or seek out expert advice from colleagues.

These tools also facilitate communication and collaboration across the entire company, which means field service technicians have access to real-time updates.

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New research reveals that 86% of companies now expect on-site post-sales services from industrial suppliers. UPS customer examples show how a new supply chain setup can improve technicians’ efficiency by up to 30 min per service and strongly improve the cash conversion cycle. Jean-François Mathieu, Marketing Manager, UPS Europe explains more...

The UPS Industrial Buying Dynamics Study is one of the few detailed studies available on the relationship between industrial buyers and suppliers.

It is a study that provides a unique understanding of how industrial buyers identify suppliers such as industrial distributors, manufacturers and e-marketplaces, their satisfaction with existing suppliers and their propensity to change suppliers in search of improved value and service.

Interviews were carried out with purchasing professionals and the study provides a detailed view across countries and sectors and one of the key learnings of this year’s study is that industrial buyer expectations of post-sales support are increasing across Europe.

In 2015, 78% of survey respondents said they expected on-site post-sales services from industrial suppliers; in 2017 that has risen to 86%In 2015, 78% of survey respondents said they expected on-site post-sales services from industrial suppliers; in 2017 that has risen to 86%, driven particularly by significant rises in expectations amongst UK and German respondents.

In fact, European expectations of post-sales support are now running well ahead of expectations in the US where 76% expect on-site support, although in China a remarkable 99% of industrial buyers expect on-site support.

In a world where sources of industrial supply have proliferated, the service offer from suppliers has become one of the most critical differentiators between competitors. Indeed, the UPS 2017 Industrial Buying Dynamics Study shows that while an effective returns process is the most important post-sales service, buyers now also expect a much wider range of services, with on-site maintenance and repairs cited as being important to them by over 70% of respondents.

This necessity of on-site maintenance and returns brings about logistics challenges for suppliers that may go beyond their traditional operational skill-set.

The survey shows that 60% of buyers typically need delivery for all orders within 48 hours or less, with little if any differences in figures cited appearing between respondents from disparate sectors.

The survey shows that 60% of buyers typically need delivery for all orders within 48 hours or less, with little if any differences in figures cited appearing between respondents from disparate sectors Over half of buyers need on-site service at least every three months, and nearly a fifth of buyers say they need on-site service at least every month. However, only a quarter of buyers say they actually receive on-site service within 24 hours, although that figure does rise significantly to 80% when we focus on a response time of 48 hours.

One company who have recently had to acknowledge this problem and find a means to overcome the challenge was Sealed Air, a leading producer of materials and manufacturing equipment for food safety, facility hygiene and packaging was recently facing challenges managing on-site service in Europe for their TASKI® floor cleaning machines.

They were managing their own supply chain through a network of 19 warehouses, supporting over 500 field service engineers providing aftersales services.

However, they had found that their service response time was continually beginning to slip below their buyer’s expectations – an issue that the senior management team at Sealed Air had quite rightly identified as one that was set to be costly both in terms of top line revenue, brand reputation and bottom line profit.

The solution that they put in place was to work with UPS in combining UPS Express shipping services with the UPS Access Point™ network to deliver parts to their field service engineers. With wait times for parts delivery massively reduced by utilising this approach, Sealed Air found that they were able to significantly improve their response times – which in turn improved their ability to meet customer expectations whilst simultaneously reducing costs by driving efficiency.

The UPS Access Point is a dropbox/locker network that features over 15,000 locations across Europe where buyers can collect or drop off parcels.

Meanwhile, UPS was able to consolidate the company’s network of warehouses into a single, centralised distribution centre. The new service infrastructure allows field technicians to order a part up until 1pm, and have it in hand early the next morning.

Field Service Engineers across Europe are typically able to find a UPS Access Point location within a few kilometres of their home or buyer, meaning that the time spent by engineers collecting spare parts has been reduced by approximately 30 minutes per service order. If each engineer was to process just one order per day then that would be an instant time saving of 250 work hours a day.

That equates to the same as adding in over 30 more engineers to the workforce!

Simply working smarter has allowed Sealed Air engineers to complete more service trips on a weekly basis, reduce the number of warehouses and inventory levels and to bring their post sales offering back on track – something which is vital for any organisation that wishes to remain competitive in this ever increasingly service-centric world.

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